Chrysalis Wins
Ch.7 “The Queen and the King”
Shade walked nervously back and forth in the throne room. When he looked up to his queen the sight displeased him. Chrysalis grunted and huffed with her eyes tightly shut, and the glowing magic around her horn intensified dangerously. A sudden episode of vomiting came from the queen, and many of the partially digested treats eaten in the royal kitchens earlier that day found their way to the floor.
It wasn’t hard for the head of the vanguard to see the dream stalking caused his queen’s duress. He wanted to help, but tearing a dream stalking changeling away from their target was tricky business.
A high pitched screech tore at all the ears in the throne room, followed by a gnarly explosion. The queen was thrown back from Celestia’s pod with a violent rag tag flail. She stopped once she hit the opposing wall, and sank to the floor.
Several of the prisoner pods swung back and forth, some of which smacked each other,causing many goopy sloshes and slurps. One of the prisoner pods was knocked so bad it’s sinewy suspension snapped. The free cocoon sailed to the ground, and split open. Green viscous soup spilled all over the throne room floor, in the midst of the mess was Applejack.
The orange earth pony coughed up a bunch of liquid from her lungs. She shook her head back and forth to get the slime out of her face. Her vision was bleary as her eyes cracked open; it appeared to be night time.
“The hay…?”
A dark figure approached her, and she still couldn’t make out who, or what it was.
“One of the cocoons broke. I will remedy the situation.”
The voice was distinctly male, and had a slight click to it, but the meaning of the words bothered the earth mare substantially. Her eyes blinked rapidly and gained clarity with each snap.
A tall vanguard changeling approached her, there was a purple lining to the edge of his eyes, and several grey freckles ran down his face and neck. His horn was ignited and a fresh cocoon floated beside him. With the speed of a second place rodeo pony, Applejack jumped to her hooves, and promptly bucked the changeling in the face.
Shade found his head suddenly knocked backward, and the rest of his body soon followed. The pod fell to the floor as the vanguard skidded over the tile of the throne room.. He growled at the pain in his snout, and turned to look for the orange pony with dizzy unfocused eyes, but she was already gone.
Applejack’s sopping wet mane and tail flapped about noisily as she dashed for the exit. Two sentinels stood guard at the throne room doors, when they saw the rapidly approaching earth pony they cast their fighting magic. Long sword-like blades of energy protruded from their horns, and their front hooves shifted to claws.
The element of honesty, dropped to her haunches and skidded to a stop. If she continued to run forward those fierce looking’ door guards would probably tear her a new---
Applejack was suddenly knocked on her back. A large black hoof pinned her to the floor. Her green eyes looked up into the face of another changeling. This new specimen was larger than Big Mac, and had an orange tint around it’s otherwise blue eyes. The thick chitin that grew on this changeling formed neat segments of armor. It hissed in a female voice.
“Going somewhere, pony?”
The large and extra scary changeling lowered her face close to Applejack and bore her fangs.
“Get up, and go to your new pod.”
With little dignity the orange earth pony was lifted and placed on her hooves. Just moments before Applejack had been dreaming, living on her farm like normal without a care. Then this harsh reminder of the real situation had to be thrust on her. She looked up, and saw the rest of her friends, and beloved princesses contained in those green resin prisons. She didn’t want to give up yet, no way, no how.
One step forward was taken, before Applejack put weight on her front hooves, and reared her back hooves up high and bucked. The blow landed squarely on the large changeling’s chest, and did nothing.
The brute of a changeling laughed, and tapped it’s chest with one of its hooves, this caused a slight rattle.
“Think you can hit harder than a manticore do you? Maybe I can convince the queen to let you stay out a little longer, and spar with the sentinels.”
She lifted a black holed hoof and smacked Applejack on the flank. The blow was so hard it threw the earth pony off of her hooves, and left a nasty welt. There was a painful grunt as the Element of Honesty tried to rub her stinging back side.
The soft clop of hooves approached the small scuffle, and Applejack turned to see who. It was the changeling she had bucked in the face earlier. A little blue blood dribbled from one of his nostrils, but he otherwise seemed passive.
“Come on Vivisect, just be practical…”
“I was trying to be, before she tried to fight with me.”
Their conversation was cut off when a loud angry roar burst from the far side of the room. Chrysalis had sprung up from the ground and burned with magical energy. Glowing, enraged green eyes focused on one pod hanging from the ceiling and seized it in magic.
“Let’s see how you like it!”
The queen had grabbed Luna’s cocoon in magic and tore it free from the ceiling. She began to spin the freed pod around in circles in the middle of the air. It turned about faster and faster until it became a blur. Even after a minute, the rate of the spin only sped up.
Without warning Chrysalis brought the pod to an abrupt stop. Though the cocoon had halted its spin, the lunar occupant hadn’t, and she swirled violently within the viscous green fluid. When Luna finally stopped spinning, the unconscious diarch started to heave and puke within her prison.
“Dream on that!”
The queen spat at the pod, before slamming it back up against the ceiling and reattaching it with new sinews.
“Practical…”
The lead sentinel turned to the vanguard with a smirk.
“Shut it, Vivisect.”
“What in Tartarus was that about?”
Applejack was just stunned at the whole scene.
“Apparently your night Princess disturbed my queen’s communication with Celestia.”
Shade answered.
“Why’s Chrysalis tryin’ to talk to Princess Celestia? She’s already taken Canterlot, what else does she want, to gloat?”
“Information, taking over isn’t exactly an easy process. Learning to move the sun proved to be… an unusual ordeal. Now something else has come up, something troubling.”
The apple pony’s expression turned snide.
“Ya don’t say... And now she’s figurin’ she needs help, cause she ain’t as smart as she thought.”
A loud smack came in contact with the back of Applejack’s head.
“You will respect the queen. All of you were fooled except for Twilight Sparkle, even your princesses. You ponies are easily manipulated by your emotions.”
Vivisect growled.
“What, and you have no emotions to deal with? Two bits say you’re full of it. I saw plenty in what your queen just did there.”
“Get her in the pod already Shade!”
“Go back to you post then, no changeling said you had to lose an argument with a pony.”
It was Shade’s turn to smirk at Vivisect. The large armored changeling sneered at the vanguard and earth mare, before she turned and left. Applejack blew out some air with a snort towards the exiting sentinel. The earth pony turned suspiciously to the vanguard.
“I suppose I should thank ya for getting’ that varmint off my case.”
“Eh, Vivisect’s pride gets ahead of her at times.”
“So you changelings have names? Besides your queen I mean.”
“Only after we earn it. Many of us have lived and died nameless.”
“Well, do ya have one?”
“Shade.”
“And, how’d ya get that?”
“I became head of the queen’s vanguard of infiltrators.”
“Huh?”
Shade had to fight to urge to hoof smack his head at the mare’s ignorance,
“My particular division was responsible for keeping the swarm alive. We would live among you ponies and forge a new alias, or borrow one. The love we gained here or in other places was used to feed the swarm. It was my positive reports that inspired the queen to come here of all countries.”
Applejack’s face was bemused “So technically I could blame ya for this whole predicament.”
“Technically you could. The queen was going to invade whether I recommended it or not. The swarm was desperate to move out of the Badlands, it’s just, just that…”
“Just what?”
Shades eyes became downcast, his lids drooped low, ears folded back, and his muzzled grimaced into a frown.
“I should probably get you hung up again before the queen suspects I’m wasting time.”
“Really, ya can’t just let one little earth pony go? What am I gonna do?”
“Letting Applejack, the Element of Honesty up to her own volitions? I don’t think I can let that fly.”
“Ya know my name?”
“Of course, what pony hasn’t heard of the legendary tales of the Elements of Harmony?”
“I suppose you’re right…”
“Come here, those welts will stop hurting once you’re back in the pod.”
With a sad frown Shade picked up the new cocoon and Applejack in his magic, and put them together. He managed to tie her up to the ceiling by himself. Once the orange pony was back in her place the vanguard looked up at her for a moment.
The earth mare looked at him for a little while, until the sedative effect of the goo set in, and her eyes were closed once more.
A loud crash next to Shade caused him to be startled. Chrysalis grabbed her lead vanguard around the neck, and pulled him close. Their eyes were nearly mashed together, and he could smell vomit on her breath. The queen leaned quite heavily on the smaller vanguard for support, and her eyes seemed to shake within her head.
“I need half the swarm ready to move Shade. Tonight!”
The queen pulled back and stood on her own hooves. She wiped a small bit of dribble away from her chin, and stumbled over to the throne itself. Once there, she sat her haunches down on it, and put both of her fore hooves to her head, as she tried to stop the spinning sensation in her skull.
“What are we to prepare for my queen?”
“We are taking that city your scout saw. Get half of the drones, vanguard, and sentinels ready. Tell them to drain every last ounce of love from all prisoners. Then gather them to Gala Hall, we move from there. The other half will remain here to keep watch.”
The vanguard bowed, and moved to obey the order without further questions. Chrysalis shook her head, and the dizziness finally wore off. She hadn’t planned on what she was about to do next, but she wouldn’t risk losing Equestria’s control.
She flew up to the podded prisoners. Some of the most loving ponies in all of Equestria lay strung up there. Before Shining Armor, she had never had an entire pony's love to herself.
Everything had always been divided, and divided again. There were only a few hundred vanguards able to actually collect love, and thousands of changelings would share it amongst themselves, thus they had to ration it. Even despite having a significantly larger portion to herself due to her position, it was never more than a fraction of what even one pony could give.
Now she had access to many. The feedings she had taken earlier that day were modest, and not enough to disturb any of the slumbering prisoners. Though it was still enough she wouldn’t have to feed again for months. Now she was going to take more, substantially more. The flight over to Celestia’s pod was brief, and the queen readied to feed.
“Forgive me-, wait no, this will make us even. You think you can just get away with disrespecting me in your dreams. I will show you otherwise.”
Fangs grabbed onto the bottom of the cocoon, and Chrysalis inhaled deeply. The pod glowed dully as it’s energies were being drained at an accelerated rate. The green liquid became cloudy, and Celestia trembled with in her pod. The Solar Princess’s face contorted in discomfort.
The green cocoon was almost grey, and the unconscious alicorn was kicking about in her pod in the midst of a nightmare. It was harsh pay back for the mistreatment in the dream, but Chrysalis rationalized she needed the extra power. It would be days before Celestia produced anything emotionally edible again. The queen didn’t feel quite as bad for the next victim she moved to.
“They once called you Nightmare Moon, but tell me, was does a nightmare have nightmares about?”
The giant changeling proceeded to drain everything from the other princesses, and Elements of Harmony. Once she was done, she was full of enough love that she wouldn’t need to feed again for a century. It was actually enough to feed the whole swarm several times over, for weeks!
The potential energy hummed within her, and her body glowed. The holes in her hooves healed over, leaving them whole. Her patchy mane smoothed over neatly, and her wings grew out even longer, any holes in them were fixed as well. Chrysalis laughed with a girly giggle.
“Ooo hoohooohoo, I’m not sure I’m sorry at all. This… is amazing.”
She remembered the reason why she did it though, and left the throne room and headed to the Gala Ballroom.
---
Once the queen left, Shade poked his head back in through a window. Every sentinel stationed there faced towards the door or balcony. The head vanguard was able to sneak in silently, and used the special grip changeling hooves had to walk on the walls and ceilings. Like a spider Shade approached the pod of one pony.
His horn ignited and some of his personal love reserve was put into the grey cocoon. It's murky liquid cleared, and revealed an orange earth pony. She was in the middle of kicking around in her pod, but quickly calmed down once the murkiness was gone. Shade poured a little more love back into the cocoon for good measure, and Applejack actually cracked a smile. It was rather funny to Shade, giving a pony love was hardly different from feeding a changeling.
The vanguard was torn. He had come to understand ponies very well in all the years he had as an infiltrator, and empathized with them. But helping other changelings escape the conditions of the Badlands is what earned his loyalty to the queen. The atrocities they had to go through just to survive out there, these ponies wouldn't understand. Changelings like Vivisect simply didn't understand the ponies, they only knew the harshness they had been raised in.
"I'm sorry it has to be this way."
He wore a sad look on his face and gently placed a hoof on Applejack's cocoon. Helping the changelings help themselves had come at a high cost for Equestria. The vanguard's frown intensified as he looked at the other grey cocoons. He flinched when he thought of the other places Chrysalis had yet to conquer.
Hopefully Fancy Pants really could help make it a peaceful transition with Manehattan. That was where Shade had done most of his infiltration work. Where he had many friends he gained over years of work. If the queen let him scout out the populace before hand he could at least warn them.
The sound of the sentinels rotating positions snapped Shade to attention. He quickly left to go about his assigned orders.
---
Within an hour, a few thousands changelings had drained all the positive emotional energy they could get from one thousand royal guards, and dozens of other assorted prisoners. If the changeling swarm was strong enough to defeat canterlot’s guard before, it was now ready to do it ten times over.
The army flew to the Gala Halls, and occupied the Royal Gardens. Rampant hisses and chatters echoed around the castle. It was still the middle of the night, and the sudden disturbance caused many ponies to awake and promptly become fearful.
Chrysalis stood on her pedestal, and faced her three most trusted councilors.
“Shade and Vivisect will come with me. Colony you are in charge of the remaining sentinels, vanguard, and drones. See that things remain peaceable, I don’t plan on being gone for more than a few days at most.”
“I will see to it my queen.”
“And don’t stop counseling with Golden Trust, I still expect those plans to be complete when I get back.”
“Of course my queen.”
“Very well, Shade, Vivisect, with me.”
The queen took to the air, followed closely by her two more militant advisers. The rest of the changelings within the ballroom came behind. High in the air above the gardens, Chrysalis’s enacted swarm wide mental communication.
“All chosen for this venture come, and enter the portal.”
A great distance directly above Canterlot castle Chrysalis tore the fabric of space. It was massive, capable of letting dozens of changelings pass through it at once. Green flames licked about it’s borders and at its center was a dark abyss. Changeling portals were more efficient for moving large numbers of bodies than the burst of magic teleportation required. Thanks to the massive boost she had just received, the queen could easily spare the cost of maintaining it to move a few thousand of soldiers.
Shade’s link to the scout in the north let the queen know exactly where to place the exit side of the portal. The buzzing swarm advanced forward, diving into the rift created by the queen. Within minutes the entire host was gone and the queen entered last, before the portal was sealed shut behind her.
---
A lone, nameless, changeling vanguard shivered in the freezing winds of the arctic north. He stood on a hill, and surveyed the crystal city that glowed before him. The thought had crossed his mind, but he wouldn’t try to infiltrate it yet. There were still too many unknown factors. A a series of high pitched wails and groans came from behind the vanguard. It sent shivers down his chitin, and he turned around about.
Low guttural growls heralded the approach of a malevolent darkness. A massive sea of shadows flowed over the ground and stopped once it noticed the small being in front of it. The inky cloud warped, and it rose high and reared like some gigantic beast. Green eyes with red irises appeared, then glared down at the creature before them.
The vanguard nearly wet himself at the sight. However, you know hardened infiltrators don’t wet themselves… So instead he settled for the next best thing. Namely he ran away and screamed like a little grub.
His insectile wings were too frigid to fly, and he didn’t have enough magic left to keep them warm either. The one or two ponies he had found earlier were depressed recluses, with hardly anything to feed from.
One of the vanguard’s hooves faltered on an uneven dip in the snow and he tripped head over hooves. He pulled his head out of the snow and shivered violently, more from fear than the cold. There was no way he could outrun the advancing shadow monster now.
“Oh molt flakes…”
The fallen vanguard raised a hoof to block his vision of oncoming doom, when the sound of burning flames erupted in the air. Flames? That wasn’t the kind of noise the dark entity made earlier. The changeling shrugged and accepted his fate all the same.
The sound of buzzing is what really grabbed his attention though, that sounded like…
Changelings, hundreds and hundreds of changelings. Pretty soon a few thousand of them filled the air. And the lone, nameless, vanguard looked up at his saving grace. The shadowy giant stopped it’s pursuit in favor of observing the newcomers.
“Crystal Slaves?”
Had something gone wrong with his curse during the thousand years? Did he unwittingly turn all the crystal ponies into bugs? The devilish red eyes blinked several times in confusion.
The enormous fiery portal eventually came to a close, and the largest changeling of them all made her appearance. The queen’s presence was easily discernible in the midst of her swarm. For her magical aura glowed like the moon next to stars, magnitudes above the rest.
It was only a moment before the two most powerful beings locked eyes.
“King Sombra…”
“A bug?”
The monstrous shadow had solidified into the rough shape of a giant unicorns head, and expressed a strange mixture of surprise, and disappointment.
“That is Queen Chrysalis to you specter. Queen of Equestria, and soon to be this city.”
“A bug?”
“Is that all you can say?”
“Crystals…”
Sombra’s ethereal mouth hissed. The ghostly king’s voiced echoed past the changeling army and beyond. His gaze left the queen, and turned to the unprotected empire, greed filled his eyes, and he hungrily licked his chops.
Chrysalis and her army were ignored as Sombra’s giant cloud advanced towards the empire. His deep base voice chuckled madly as he did so.
“You inane… Grrrr, every changeling blast him!”
Immediately hundreds of bursts of green magic launched at the enormous shadow. The spectral king stopped his advance, and sensed he was under attack. When the bolts of energy approached, Sombra silently dodged them, his form twisted and parted to avoid every shot.
“Ha-ha-ha…HA!”
Came the laugh of the king, at the ineffective attacks. When Chrysalis saw the energy was being wasted in a futile effort she shouted a mental command to ‘stop’. Sombra noticed they stopped attacking, and turned back to his advance on the empire.
“Cryssssstalsssss!”
“You may be nimble, but you’re not getting past me!”
The queen snarled, and her horn erupted with a vault of flaming green energy. A wall of emerald fire intercepted the advance of the black clouds. The king’s giant unicorn head butted into the burning barrier and bounced back. Part of the shadowy makeup of his face dissolved. He roared loudly as part of his essence was severed in his spectral state, though it quickly grew back when he turned to face the perpetrator, letting out a roar that shook the landscape.
Chrysalis landed heavily on the snow, and started to slowly trot towards the living shadow.
“Celestia and Luna were able to put you away. I will put you down!”
Sombra’s eyes flashed in recognition when he heard the names of the royal sisters. His fiendish eyes roamed the skies, as if he expected them to be there.
“Celestia?”
“No, Sombra, It’s Chrysalis.”
Playing with this shadow wasn’t as much fun as she’d thought it would be. With a sigh she conjured more burning barriers, and made them close around Sombra’s cloudy being. The flaming walls vaporized any part of the shadow they touched. The two stared at each other like rival predators.
“Grrrraw, you will not keep me from Cryssstalsss!”
“Ha, I’m impressed. So you can say more than two words.”
Before Chrysalis’s fire could completely encompass Sombra he leapt out of his clouds. The Large shadowy face emerged from the midst, with a trail of smoke that snaked behind. He launched forward and crashed down into the ground, and disappeared amongst the solid matter. Though a visible shadow could be seen where he landed. His dissolved form wormed it’s way back into the wilderness. A trail of crystal spires was left in his wake.
Chrysalis followed the trail, and blew apart the crystal structures along the way. The path of dark magic suddenly ended, and the queen could hear a faint chuckle. She looked here, there, and everywhere, but could see no sign of the spectral king, so she growled. Her army gathered around her, and landed in the snow. Vivisect approached.
“Is he dead my queen?”
“I do not believe so. He’s merely retreated, for now. Have the swarm form a protective watch around the empire. Tell them to use barrier magic if a shadow approaches, it seems to be the most effective.”
The head sentinel clicked, and started to cast a message spell to various parts of the swarm. Shade approached the queen next.
“Is there anything else my queen?”
“I’m going to introduce these crystal ponies to their new sovereign, the vanguard can come with me into the city.”
The army started to disperse, and surround the borders of the empire. It was a strange sensation to step past the boundary and into the crystal realm. For on one side were the freezing temperatures of the frozen north, but on the other was a pleasantly balmy spring. The temperature shift was distinct and immediate.
The queen’s entourage flew straight towards the center of the city, and passed over many of the crystal homes. Several surprised ponies looked up when they heard a buzz. The crystal ponies themselves were sullen and faded, but their eyes immediately snapped wide open when they saw what flew by.
One pony shouted.
“Sombra has returned! As a mare!”
Chrysalis face hoofed.
“This may take longer than I thought.”
---
Deep, deep underground, Sombra’s essence slithered straight through stone and earth. Eventually his shadow dropped down into a tunnel. His eyes glowed with magical luminescence and illuminated the dark space he came to rest in. When he looked about he saw a small metal rail, and an old cart rested on the track.
“Cryssstal minesssss.”
The sight of some chains on the ground brought up old memories, and they made him grin.
“Cryssstal hrrr. Herrr. Heart. Crystal heart! The Crystal heart, isss mine. Foolisssh bug!”
His menacing voice echoed down the tunnel. It had been so long since he had talked, so very long. The imprisonment in the ice had his mind addled. It was so much solitude that he had forgotten many things in the oppressive oblivion. There were a few things however, he could, neh, WOULD NEVER forget.
“Crystal heart, is mine!”
Howls reverberated through the very walls, and Sombra navigated his way through the bowels of the empire. His eyes burned with dark magic
“The Crystal Empire Is….MINE!”
Interesting beginning, but...
Damn it Crystal Ponies.
........... yeaaaaah, no.
sombra would not be threatenend by changelings, or at least not chrysalis minions. i mean he disabled shining armor in short order. what is keeping him from disabling the drones in short order other than de plots?
Hmm..............Still feel uneasy as ever.
5887074 ... are you trying to argue that fighting one dude works the same way as fighting a hundred dudes?
5887074
He wasn't really threatened by chrysalis's minions.
Their attacks can't really do anything him. Also Shining armor was just one pony, and here there were a few thousand changelings. I just think Sombra would rather spend time chasing down the crystal heart, than disabling a bunch of bug ponies, especially when he thinks he can just dash for it.
Now, how does Chrysalis make her entrance? Most likely she would try to convince the populace she's there to help them, because right now she technically is.
5887111 one pony who is able to hold back all those changelings. while most would say the inverse ninja rule, that one skilled opponent is more dangerous than a dozen less skilled enemies, is bogus, if we take into account that a being like sombra or celestia has the capacity hurt a LOT of enemies at once, a large number is a disadvantage. they would be too easy to hit.
regardless of inverse ninjas, that is just an excuse. sombra is no idiot. that is why he left dozens of traps that ponies would have to go through to even look at the heart. he would not view a bunch of enemies as something he can just ignore.
he wasn't even there to use the heart. he CAN'T use the heart. that is why the heart was locked away. the whole point of getting the heart to that area in time was because it would allow its energy to return and purge sombra.
he has no reason to go after the heart. he however has reasons to eliminate the creatures that stand as rival to him.
aka, there is no reason for him to go after the heart here because none of the creatures before him could either use it or reach it........ besides why would he go underground? its in a tower.
5887106 inverse ninja theory, that one skilled enemy is more dangerous than a group of assailants.
when ti comes to beings like sombra however, that is actually plausible. sombra is powerful enough to cause a lot of damage over an area. all a large group would allow is the inability ot avoiding those attacks. a smaller, and preferably more skilled, group however would be more of a threat because they are more maneuverable, and make him less likely to go for the big blasts cause they would be a waste of energyl.
aka, splash damage is designed to take out several bad guys.
5887198
I just have to wonder, do you even like this story? Because many of your comments come across as 'argumentative' or 'condescending' rather than helpful. I understand if it's just your way of critiquing things. It's good to have someone second guess your decisions at times. But there's really no need to be overly negative towards other peoples ideas.
5887163
Keep the crops healthy
5887366 maybe i am coming off more extreme than i intend.
i will say that the story has fair writing and how it characterizes. definitely has that going for it. it just that the scenario with the weakest demon lord of all the dmeon lords mlp has shown us somehow actually taking over rings a little false. especially when her irst encounter with sombra has sombra making the same mistake that she herself did not make in the beginning.
5887379
Are you calling Chrysalis a demon lord?
5887198 ... you seem to be describing Sombra as if he acts like a video game boss. Granted his sanity definitely took a hit, but even so, we didn't know that going in.
And let me counter your earlier argument with this; I fight someone very skilled, and I beat them by, I don't know, grabbing limbs XYZ in order ABC.
Now, I am fighting a small army of not as skilled people. I look at one and I beat them by XYZ in ABC. Then I got to the next one, and in that time everyone else swarms me, pins my limbs, and kicks the shit out of me.
Yeah, it's SO unreasonable for her to take over, considering that in the show she HAD taken over, and only lost that because of a few seconds of mistake.
Weakest demon lord? CITATION REALLY NEEDED. Considering that we don't actually know how Sombra matches up against Chrysalis, or how we are to consider Tirek's variable power, AND that 'weak and strong' is not a sliding scale...
... honestly lordofmyth, you say some really stupid shit sometimes.
5887416
That was my reaction when i started reading, ninja's and splash damage. Dis r vigeo games?
On an unrelated note.
One interesting thing to note about the crystal heart : Upon reviewing the show, Sombra never gained his body back until he came in close proximity to the crystal heart. I have no idea whether he could just will his body back or not before that point. But gaining his physical form back seemed to both surprise, and inspire confidence in him. Or maybe the confidence was because spike was about to drop the heart into his lip-smackin' mouth. -hungry for crystals anyone?- I dunno you decide.
But i would at least imagine Sombra's first priority would be to make sure the heart is secure. Cuz ya know, the whole kryptonite syndrome thing.
5887468
Well, it's a bit of gray area. On one hand, Cadance is dead on her hooves but when she gets close to the Heart, she's good as new. The flashback also says C&L turned him into shadow. This gives some credence to the theory that the Heart was healing Sombra.
However, given that not two minutes later that same Heart was blowing him up I go with the theory that he could manually turn into shadow form, C&L just 'locked' him into it, and the Heart disrupted the shadow form.
A last alliance of Crystal Ponies and Changelings marched against the armies of Sombra, and on the borders of the Crystal Empire, they fought for the freedom of Equestria. X3
5887468 Just went back to watch his death scene: Sombra has no ears. I repeat, Sombra has no ears.
5887468 ......... he kinda needed to physically itneract with it, something he would not do if he wasn't desperate.
crystal heart can physically harm him. the heart is designed to destroy the likes of him.
5887490
Just got too much hair and crown bro
or...lol
Apparently the new comics say he's not even a pony, but an umbrum or something. And the crystal heart is his mother? well... that wiki summary of the comic gives me thoughts. Not sure if i want to go with that back story though.
5887393 i am just using a collective term dude. she is a fantasy based antagonist who is dark in origin and has world dominating ambitions.
that describes a lot of mlp villains. just a term.
and towards the whole ninja thing, i was just giving an example. ultimately we know that sombra is at least in a similar league with alicorns, and even weaker alicorns show they are powerful enough to send giant monsters realing and blast stone apart. put simply by sheer virtue of their ability to blow stuff up, an army kinda seems counter productive. numbers would not help when your allies are slowing you down from avoiding the dbz style energy blast coming your way.
5887487
Lol, but they already got lotr reenacted by ponies.
i guess the alicorn amulet can be sombra's one ring then. hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink.
5887416 just setting up examples. armies kinda coutner productive when the enemy makes things go boom.
and i would say that chrysalis is lower tier than sombra in the sense that she is much more limited. she is strong, and with shining love at least was able to overpower celestia. but she is short sighted and vain. and her abilities seem much more limited.
though it is true we see little of what celestia can do, but that is more liekly because if we did a lot of the threats that popped up would be solved. safer to presume her competence than think otherwise, considering she protected equestria, alone, for a millenium. with things like chrysalis running around.
sombra on the other hand was able to steal away an entire city before being beat to shit, shows to be a skilled illusionist, and generally has an aura of power and clearly a greater grasp of magic than chrysalis does.
put simply he has a larger skill set.
5887545 You frikin' tease. XD
The only gripe I could voice was when Chrysalis just over feed on the main six. Now the Princesses I can understand, since they kind of provoked her, but the others... mmm... just seemed uncalled for.
I actually had thought maybe Shade would fly up to AJ's pod and maybe give some love back. You know.
5887537
Oh DBZ, , team four star you are my favorite. But anyways,
Armies are awesome they're full of loyal minions which you can throw at your at your target enemy to evaulate their strengths. Before you unleash your shoop da' whoop on them, you send the little shoop da woops. Since changelings hold love like batteries, in this story at least, and they want to be effecient,
Rather than chrysalis just dumping all the shoop da woop at the start, and end up being excessive, or worse, missing... and being excessive. CRITICAL MISS!
5887573
Hey, good idea! about the Shade thing. editing is awesome. ty
5887607 Really? OMG YAY!
Your really going to add that?
5887552
You know, I can just swap out 'Celestia' with 'Chrysalis' and completely invalidate your entire argument.
5887661
yep added several paragraphs in a little section just after Chrysalis feeds. Just for you well, i guess technically for everyone, but you gave me the idea!
5887715
It's true That's why almost every fic i've read with changelings in it has something extra made up about their abilities. Heck, i mean limits, quirks, none of it is really explained by the little we see in the show.
Then again, that's why they're so much fun to write, they're just such a blank slate with all kinds of cool possibilities.
5887726 OMG!
*how I feel right now* -
img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110903211842/mlp/images/d/d8/Spike_with_Gala_ticket_cropped_S01E03.png
5887724
Hey thanks for pointing that out. I'm just slowly wrinkling through the fic and gradually fixing errors. But unfortunately i'm just too tempted to keep writing ahead anyway But i am working more consciously at it now.
5887726 Oh, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE, let their be more interaction between Shade and AJ. ^^ Maybe he could try some dream walking, perhaps and visit her? And who knows, maybe even the others could come to understand ponies better? :3
Oo! Maybe that could lay the foundations for the main six and the changelings teaming up against the "Big Baddy"? I don't know who your going to pick for that one, but its just and idea. :P
5887840
I'm glad that little addition got you excited -have to use an AJ face i guess- lol
Any further interaction between Shade and AJ will have to wait a few chapters. I did have plans for chrysalis to interact with one of a few of the mane six, i just hadn't decided who. But now i have a means. It'll have to wait until they get back to canterlot though. Got that shadow guy to deal with or somethin'
5887919 True, very true. ^^ :P
As for who she interacts with, I would personally have to say Twilight. She's more of a key aspect to the whole situation, and it just makes sense since She and Chrysalis already have established some interaction.
Good story, just read it all in the last hour. Christy has her work cut out for her I think. Would like to see a resistance pop up though. One lone batpony shouldn't be it. Mayhap a successful rescue of one or two of the Mane Six and perhaps a soon to be angry Shining Armor. After Sombra of course.
5887595 that energy is wasted if the changelings get wasted, if you follow my meaning. such as impaled by magical crystal spikes that a smaller number would be able to avoid for example.
put simply you have the error of crhysalis being smart enough not to take a chance, or should i say out of character enough to not have her vanity fed, yet sombra is acting stupid enough to not deal with the obvious threat.
Fridge-horror moment of the chapter: Luna is now dead, having just aspirated her own digestive fluids.
5887919
You mean what?
5887919 So, Celestia wasn't a major fight?
6474449
The Celestia fight is the reason why this story exists... Hmm to bad it only got like 10-15 secs screen time in the show
Hey thanks! You just gave me another chapter idea!
Edit - Oh... I get what you mean, the authors note eh?
Well since I didn't write celestia's fight into this story (yet) sombra is the first serious enemy your gonna see